“It was scary,” he said. “It was terrifying. It was very hard. But I’m glad it’s over.”

He wants to be prosecuted in Australia, citing “human rights”, but that’s unlikely given the Morrison Government’s reluctance to repatriate Australians who choose to fight with terror groups.

He told Wroe that he didn’t know how brutal IS was until he got there.

“I didn’t see the heads on spikes … I didn’t see any heads or severed bodies and stuff like that. I wasn’t the type of person to be running around the shops too much … and I don’t like to see beheadings. I don’t like to see those sort of scenes. Nor do I agree with it.”

Wroe told the Today show this morning that he found the claim of ignorance hard to swallow.

“I will let the viewers read and watch and make up their own minds,” he said.

“I would point to the fact that in order to believe that he did not know the true nature of this organisation he would have had to close his eyes and his ears to evidence out there in

news media, on the internet, among conversations with people in the streets not to notice that they were brutal and sadistic and apocyliptic in their nature.

“You can believe him. You can believe that he thought that the media stories were absolute conspiracy, that it was just Islamophobia on the part of the media, but you need to believe that in order to say, “OK, he went over there innocently not understanding that this is actually the brutal organisation that it was.”

Mr Masri says he deserves a second chance because everybody “makes mistakes”. He says his children deserve a chance to grow up in Australia, too.

“It’s not my kids’ fault,” he said. “They’re just babies. They don’t even know what life is.”

As many as 85 Australians are believed to have been killed as a result of their involvement in IS’ war in the Middle East.

Scott Morrison has made it clear he does not want to bring Australian IS recruits home, but the Attorney-General’s Department told news.com.au those who do return will be dealt with severely.

“Any returning foreign fighters who have fought in the conflict zone, have been a member of the terrorist group, or have been in a declared area, will face the full extent of the law,” a spokesman said.